captioning sponsored by comedy central captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org from comedy central's world news headquarters in new york, this is "the daily show" with jon stewart. ["daily show" theme song playing] [cheers and applause] captioning sponsored by comedy central >> jon: welcome to "the daily show". my name is jon stewart. a good one for you tonight. our guest jonathan sperber written a new biography of karl mar. x, the least funny of all the marx brothers. the aws tearity measures from the sequester are taking the

toll oned the needy in this country. the gun control is losing momentum and walking dead is off the air until october and there was a fourth thing i keep forgetting. >> north korea is one again ratcheting up tensions with the united states. >> jon: yeah, yeah that was it three other bad things and then that north korea thing. for some reason nobody can figure out north korea has decided to ratchet up tensions or to put it another way [speaking korean] [laughter] and now to phil with sports! phil! [laughter] take it away. [ laughter ] very enthusiastic about reading the newscast. very angry. first of all, what an impressive

copy of nancy grace's show. [ laughter ] second of all, what the hell north korea. when did all this start. what is kim jong-il's boy up here? >> kim jong-un warned his forces are ready to as he put it "settle accounts with the united states." >> look past the picture of kim jong-un. there's a chart with missile trails aiming at hawaii, california, d.c. and for some reason austin, texas. [ laughter ] >> jon: you are going to blow up austin, texas. what are you just trying to get the rest of texas. it on your side? [laughter] or -- are you trying to get the rest of texas on your side?

or did they reject your indi film little miss unshine. is that what you are mad about? all right. nice legs. old kim is trying to scare us a little bit. the bombing austin thing undercuts but what snels. >> this showing north korean military leaders looking at a computer that looks pretty antiquated. >> jon: let me stop you right there. it doesn't look antiquated it looks like a harpsicord with a panic button. planning to start a nuclear war or play nights in what satin, wow, am i old. i thought that would land there but perhaps the audience was thinking well that was actually not on a hardsichord.

that's why we didn't laugh not the fact that you are (bleep) old man. provoke us, kim. >> north korea released a picture shows amphibious pictures engaged in a military exercise. experts found at least six of hovercraft were photoshopped. [laughter] >> jon: first of all, six hovercrafts arrrgh. second of all that is the worst photoshop job i've doctor i don't think it's photoshopped. it looks like ms paint. windows 95 slam! woo! hey, wait a minute, what happened? what? oh, son of a bitch! i can't believe i got the blue screen of death. it's a joke. windows 59 is the revolutionary operating system that formed the

foundation for much of the technology we enjoy today. jeez, touchy. look, kim -- [cheers and applause] -- i know you are itching to fight us, kim. you know, but i mean for a young guy your war mothering is retro. with the goose stepping and the hill conquering and -- really cardboard cut out targets and there's a commander on the bridge? what is that, binoculars? magnified vision in both eyes? [laughter] i don't know if you know this, but we've moved on from that past thing. war is a little more modern now. >> two massive b-2's soared 6500 miles from missouri to drop dummy weapons on a bombing range west of south korea and less than 50 miles from the north korean border and then flew back

to the u.s. >> jon: for lunch mother (bleep). for lunch! [cheers and applause] the midday meal [one person in crowd chants u.s.a.] [laughter] >> jon: getting a little carried away. you understand. [ laughter ] look, we're flattered, but we're not interested. we'll call you. >> this warning the north vowed to restart a nuclear reactor. >> jon: we're listening. >> north korea says in part it's for electricity. >> jon: phew. all right. like i said we'll call you. >> the problem is the plant has never been attached to the power grid. [ laughter ] >> jon: hey, i see a problem right here you gotta run some conduits to the nuclear reactor there you won't get any juice to the street.

let me run to the truck and grab conduit. it will take like a minute. you gotta run some conduit. what else is this thing good for? >> it could make enough plutonium in a year for a nuclear bomb. >> jon: i hear you. let me run out to my truck. wow. so you got nuclear bombs, all right. you are hell bent on this war, aren't you? i'm going to let you in on a secret. i don't think america is going to be the committed adversarial relationship you are looking for. see we just out of two very serious wars. [ laughter ] very high maintenance, still haven't gotten all (bleep) back from them. [ laughter ] it's not you, it's us. if we're looking for any kind of conflict right now it's going be a rebound war, and i don't think you want that. just straight up destruction, you know what i mean? just to remind us the equipment

still works. you know what i mean, hey, are you guys okay afterwards or can we train your local police force during a complex political transglition it's just going to be wham bam bam bam, wham. kaboom, wham bam. you want to think long and hard about why you would really want to do this. analysts say kim jong-un is trying to solidify his leadership at home by manufacturing a crisis to look like a hero to his people. >> jon: wait, this is about domestic politics? this is a message you are sending your people? why do you need to get us jumpy over it? no one in your current gets tv from outside your country. tell them you are menacing us. tell them uconn querd us. we don't care. tell them -- tell them you already conquered us, we don't

care. tell them you replaced the statute of liberty with a pçblm$dd t![8d",zm,xn9[cheers a]

>> jon: we will welcome whack. -- welcome back. listen, sunday was easter there.

i thought it was a good time to check in with the new pope francis i and see how he is holding up. >> he is setting a new tone with the papacy choosing to wear simple white vestments, shake hands with the public and focus on the poor. >> presenting the priesthood as a task of service. >> choosing a simple apartment over the grand papal redz dense wearing a soccer jersey from his favorite time. >> jon: fooding the communion in tupperware. trading in the pope mobile for the pope moped. what else is he doing? >> paying his hotel bill after becoming pope. >> jon: popes didn't use to pay their hotel bills? [laughter] the other popes when did they do when they went to check out just like -- [laughter] hey, this things got no pockets

what are you going to do? this pope francis seems like a breath of fresh air. i like. this he prefers the title of bishop of rome simpler and less majestic than pope or his holiness. >> jon: please his holiness lives in florida. [ laughter ] basically everything pope francis does is a standing reproach to the more flashy style of predecessor. i'm not saying pope benedict did it but every time he went to mexico kids hit him with sticks hoping jewels would pour out. what is the most unbenedict-like thing pope francis could do? >> instead of washing the feet of 12 priests on holy thursday he disregarded the cut of yom and washed the feet of 12 prisoners including a muslim woman. >> jon: i don't see anybody's

religion, just 24 really dirty feet or 120 very dirty toes. let's do this again. this little piggy went to confession. this little piggy went to prison. you are not a good piggy. i love this guy. he is giving prisoners manny-popis. we should call him pope raymond because everybody loves him. it's only the second week on the job how do you top this? >> he is marking the weekend with many firsts. on italian television today he did something popes rarely do. >> jon: let lion goes from a hot air balloon? harlem shake? call the aristocrats -- >> he did something popes really do participating in a broadcast special on the shroud of turin. it's the first showing of the shroud only the second time in

history. >> jon: what a relief to catholics everywhere to have their new pope go on television and this is the only dirty

>> jon: welcome back. my guest tonight a professor -- a professor -- history of university of missouri. he is also on author. his latest book is called karl

marx: a 19th century life. please welcome to the program jontan sperbe -- jonathan sperber. sir, thank you so much for being here. the book is say "a 19th century life: karl marx." the first prize is that he fathered barack obama. >> it was interesting. >> jon: well researched i might add. we have in our minds a two dimensional character -- most of the icons of the 19th century of the 20th century. you have really brought to life that third dimension, his personal life, all that. it creates a much more confusing but humanizing portrait of the man. >> i think that's very true. marx drugelled all his life with -- struggled all his life with money problems, worked very

hard as a journalist. people don't know that. he wrote for the world's largest newspaper in the 1850's. >> jon: he was doing well, a pretty successful journalist who was making a little bit of coin and the whole thing goes to -- >> being a free lance writer then as today is not an easy way to make a living. >> jon: he would have been, i think a blogger. he was prolific -- >> yes. >> jon: but, you know, as you go through his writings they are somewhat difficult to reconcile. they are very conflicted. >> it's really true. marx was a lot better with short pieces which he could finish quickly like his journalism. >> jon: the interesting thing i didn't know you think of him as a workhorse but his work habits were sort of odd. he wrote those things in a couple of hours at night, a little bit here, a little bit

there. >> he was notoriously a guy who worked in streaks. work 48 hours in a row, stay up all night, and then collapse and not write anything for several weeks. there's an account from dutch relatives that he would sit at a table, ponder, walk around and around the table. sit down again, write something and walk around and around. >> jon: he is much like the college students who love him. that's what they love about him. >> it's true. >> jon: they see that guy and say that's what i do. i collapse and do don't anything for two weeks. >> he drank like a lot of college student dozen. >> jon: that was the interesting thing, too. he was a robust guy. he tend to think of it as marx occurred in black and while and gray and lived a colorless life. he will talked about toil as a

means of production. i guy knew how to throw down. >> he was a pub crawler. once got into a fame russ brawl with a -- famous brawl in a pub. >> jon: he had an ill legitimate child. he pulled a schwarzenegger. >> unlike arnold with the loz of opportunities. it's still a mystery how this conception occurred. >> jon: i think it's exciting that he had a maid in a one room apartment. would you think that according to his ability he could pick up his triewz trousers off the floor. >> the alternative would be to have his wife do it. she was from an aristocratic family. >> jon: a brilliant writer in her own write. >> she was a secretary. >> jon: was his it daughter? she was a writer. i apologize. his daughter. his to the get through the whole

thing in a day. his daughter was the writer. >> partial credit because they are both jaked jenny. >> jon: they are both named jenny. come on! in fact there's that picture in there of her with the cross and i thought well that's weird and the caption said it's not relig cannous but -- religious but polish. >> it's a symbol of polish uprising. >> jon: i get credit for that one? >> absolutely. >> jon: are you grading me? >> i do have a little -- maybe on my smartphone, if i had one i'd be grading you. >> jon: you would be grading me. this man his appearance changed so drastically over the years and he seemed very influenced by the styles and things around him. he seemed more insecure than i would have thought. >> he was insecure and insecure about very basic thing, about earning enough money to support his family. it was an idea of manhood of the

19th century. a real man supports his family and women and his daughters. marx had trouble doing it. it was painful to asked his friend engles for money. >> jon: not only money but he took the hit on the maid thing. >> he stepped forward and announced he was the father. he only confessed on his death bed who the real father was. >> jon: whatever you think of the engles shall the world's greatest wingman, i would say. would you agree with that? >> no question about it. >> jon: whatever you think about, the ferocity. it interest -- was interesting where he had very little influence over even the trades he belonged to. >> it was fleeting. the revolution it was an

important figure in western germany. he was the moving spirit behind the international workingmen's association, the so called first international but he was for a lot of people, a very obscure figure. what made him a celebrity was the paris commune of 1870. marx publicly endorsed it. he support id. everybody was horrified by women handling weapons shooting soldiers. marx supported it and he was a a boogieman and a giants public figure. he loved every second of it. >> jon: he enjoyed that. >> he loved being somebody that people were afraid of. >> jon: as it stands now i wonder if his -- his vision of capitalism is different from the one we have now. i wonder what he would make of it. would it be chest beating but to see the failures of communism. what would he say about that?

>> that's a good question. >> jon: well, you are the professor. [ laughter ] and know this, i am grading you. >> all right. here is my answer. there's a very obscure letter he wrote in 1858 he said what is going to happen. he was expecting a revolution in europe to break on any day. there will be receive liewtion and communist regimes in europe but the british and american will rule the world. what is going to be happen to the communist countries in a world dominated by angelo american capitalism. the revolution didn't happen them. but they wrestled with it and the answer was we'll give up and capitalists will dominate the world. >> jon: it's fascinating. it's on the bookshelves now. buy it because it's going to be on the test. >> it's available as an e book for the audience.

>> jon: it's an e book if you eéxéx

>> jon: that's our show. join us tomorrow at 11:00. here it is your moment of zen: